1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications and, more particularly, to interactive voice response applications and pre-connection telephony signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
The advent of interactive voice response (IVR) applications for use in telephone systems has reduced operating costs for many types of businesses by reducing telephone related staffing requirements. Such IVR applications typically answer incoming telephone calls and present to callers audible menus of selectable options. The callers usually make menu selections in one of two ways: depressing a key or sequence of keys on a touch tone keypad; or issuing a spoken utterance.
Oftentimes a plurality of hierarchically related menus are presented which a caller must navigate to find the option that the caller wishes to select. Navigating through such menus can be time consuming and frustrating, especially if the caller makes an incorrect selection during the navigation process. Consequently, callers often hang up prior to successfully navigating the menus or opt out of the menu system in an attempt to speak with an operator. Particularly concerning are the cases in which callers that hang up in frustration are potential customers or clients. Although such frustrations could be minimized by allowing callers a simplified navigational method for contacting a desirable node within an IVR menu, conventional systems offer callers no such alternative means to navigate an IVR menu.